Alex, First, I hope you, Fudo, and others will forgive me for butting in all the time. Feel free to ignore me if I steer the conversation away from purpose. I am quite wordy lately. Please excuse my selfishness, for I too have come for answers.
It seems you and I have many similar thoughts. I don't know if I can point the way, but I can point out a couple of tripping stones: "I question here whether it is possible to have only means without having an end at the same time. It's like saying that there are only tall people in the world. Short people simply don't exist." It is a good question. The answer is that it is possible as "purposeless arising." Means with no ends in sight. I am suprised at how thoroughly my thinking was (still is) tied to the Aritsotelean 'Necessary Cause' embraced by christianity (especially St. Thomas Aquinas) -- but it is logically unsound (and therefore so is the Summa Theologica... unfortunately, 'cause its full of truth). Try to find why arising is necessary? Try to find the End that the Means are for? This I see as grasping for phantoms. What is the End? The fact that there is dualistic means and no end is one of my great enlightenments (lightening of my load). There is no grand goal -- no fundamental needs outside dualism. There is means, not End. I'm not quite sure how one goes from this logical realization to the action of living as though it was only means that exist (living in the moment) -- but I mean to ferret it out :) Rod Scholl ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> $9.95 domain names from Yahoo!. Register anything. http://us.click.yahoo.com/J8kdrA/y20IAA/yQLSAA/S27xlB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Noble Eightfold Path: Right View, Right Intention, Right Speech, Right Action, Right Effort, Right Mindfulness, Right Concentration, Right Livelihood Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ZenForum/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
